


Bellum

by Sol_Invictus



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Implied Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, War, the chinese sniper story fitzjames always tells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 16:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19407166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sol_Invictus/pseuds/Sol_Invictus
Summary: Stanley recognized the charming anecdote for what it was: a coping mechanism.





	Bellum

**Author's Note:**

> I am really bitter we didn't get a scene where Stanley and Fitzjames talked of their time together in China, so here you go, have some broken men trying to cope with war memories. And yes, historically Fitzjames and Stanley served on the same ship during the Opium War, although we'll never know if Stanley was the one to operate on him.

Stanley wasn’t half as annoyed as he ought to be each time he heard that sniper story. He _had_ been there as well, after all. He was the one who had operated on the man. But then, Fitzjames’ story wasn’t exactly true. He never told about the piles of bodies. He never told about the tears he cried. He never told about the man who got headshot just behind him. He never told about his ghost haunting his nightmares. He never told about the drops he took to sleep ever since.

Stanley recognized the charming anecdote for what it was: a coping mechanism, a vain way to convince himself this gruesome war hadn’t wrecked him body and soul. In his story Fitzjames was the daring, naïve young man he always had been before, just like Stanley’s cynical aloofness hid the fact he had cried for each life he couldn’t have saved.

Truth be told, the doctor much preferred the embellished version of the commander to the true events, for there were no broken men and dead friends in the tale. Just brave heroes and toiling doctors.


End file.
